The Paperless Office

Move into the Office of the Future with Paperless Office Solutions

We love trees. They're pretty to look at, they provide homes for wildlife and they produce oxygen. Each of those reasons are pretty important reasons to love trees but, when it comes to why most of us love trees, it's because they also give us the one thing that pretty much every single office in the world is guaranteed to use, paper.

Where would we be without paper?

Paper is used by us for writing notes, printing documents, drawing and sketching ideas, making the occasional attempt at a paper plane, the list goes on. The trouble is that, as useful as it is, paper has become something of a burden. We are now at a point where paper has become an unnecessary item within the office and home environment, but no-one ever really acknowledges this. Most offices will now use computers for the majority of their document creation. Those documents can then be emailed across with much greater ease than printing the file and then mailing it out or sending it a few tables away from you.

Despite this, paper has become a part of the landscape much like the trees it comes from. One or two trees nobody really notices but plant an entire forest where there once was no trees and people would see. Similarly, one or two papers and documents knocking about the office is not really a problem however; when that paper multiplies into folders or filing cabinets full of paper, you end up with a highly cluttered work space.

Moving the Paperless Office Forward

For years and years the business world has talked about the paperless office with as many scoffs as nods of approval. This could mainly be because it has always seemed like such a faraway concept and one the average office worker might struggle to comprehend on a wider scale. The fact is, it is easier now than it ever has been to get your business paperless and it is incredibly vital to embrace the paperless office for numerous reasons.

The Environment

There's no denying it; creating and using paper uses trees. That is an accepted fact but it has become widely acknowledged that, contrary to original belief, trees are not being as adequately replaced at the same pace as they are being cut down. There are a lot of paper suppliers out there looking to make as much money as possible in a shorter period of time. Because of this, they are not properly restocking and replanting new trees to replace the old ones. Of course, this will have a knock-on effect when it comes to our future paper consumption but, worse than this, it will cause a decrease in the amount of oxygen produced. With less oxygen there will be an increase in carbon dioxide when there are fewer trees to convert it into breathable oxygen.

There is also the potential implications of ink use. You may think that this might be pushing it somewhat but think about all the printers in the world printing on a daily basis and think of the fumes that this will produce. It is also more difficult to recycle paper containing inks from inkjet and other commercial printers which would make a lot of efforts to recycle would be quite redundant.

Finally, when those trees are cut down to produce paper, a large amount of rare and endangered animals are losing their homes which can, in a lot of cases, lead to extinction. Imagine if someone bulldozed your home to make a country lane when there was a perfectly good main road just a few yards away. That is what this kind of deforestation is like.

The Paperless Office Can Change This

Less paper consumption through a paperless or 'paper light' office will mean a lot less trees would need to be cut down and used. Therefore the problem is almost immediately rectified by simply cutting down paper use in your working life or even using none at all. The same can be said for the less ink used that will send out less harmful fumes into the environment.

But there are other advantages for you to consider when it comes to the paperless office. Here are a few that could benefit you too:

1. Improved Efficiency2. Time saving3. Cost saving4. Space saving

The paperless office can help us in numerous ways and improve efficiency to potentially huge benefits. Documents saved onto computers in a digital document management system or on document management software can be searched and recovered quicker and easier than going through hundreds of physical documents in order to find the information you need. If you have your documents made completely readable by computer using Optical Character Recognition software processing, this could be a huge help in finding particular words and phrases within files such as reference numbers, client names and addresses. We're talking search times in seconds here, not minutes. This time saving creates potentially more time for other important tasks to be done around the office thus increasing productivity among your staff and colleagues.

The obvious benefit of a paperless office is the considerable space you will free up if you no longer have a need for folders, document boxes and filing cabinets. Once the files are digitised you could send your documents to be recycled and shredded, claiming back some much needed office space.

A more efficient and spacious working environment will not only boost morale but can save you costs that can be assigned to more important aspects of the business. The paperless office really is the office of the future, so why not jump into the future today and get a head start?

To find out more information about how you can acheive an office free of paper through digital document solutions, get in touch today or request a free, no obligation quote for your scanning projects by following the relevant links below.

About the author

Pearl Scan Solutions is a UK based Document Scanning Company, Document Management and Data Capture company. Pearl has been helping organisations facing document management challenges since 2003. Our experience and accreditations have help us grown into a leading UK document scanning company delivering the highest quality of scanning services for all types of documents, large format drawings, microfilm scanning, microfiche scanning, aperture card scanning, book scanning. Among our services we offer accurate data capture, data entry services for surveys and complete document management, document storage and document shredding solutions at a highly competitive price. Our scanning bureau is located in Manchester and we have sales offices in London and Birmingham.